Tim Blake Nelson’s produced plays include the award-winning The Grey Zone (Oppenheimer Prize, Encore’s “Taking Off” Award, Berilla Kerr Award), Eye of God (Kesselring Prize nomination), Anadarko and Cyrus. Nelson has also acted extensively in New York theatre where he appeared most recently in A Midsummer Night’s Dream for the New York Shakespeare Festival. Other credits include the critically acclaimed play The Beard of Avon, in which Nelson portrayed William Shakespeare (New York Theatre Workshop). Nelson appeared in Oedipus, with Frances McDormand and Billy Crudup (CSC), Troilus and Cressida (NYSF), Les Bourgeois Avant-Garde (YALE REP), Mac Wellman’s Dracula (SOHO REP), The Amazon’s Voice (MCC), An Imaginary Life (PLAYWRIGHTS HORIZONS), The Baltimore Waltz (YALE REP), Mad Forest (NYTW), The Innocents Crusade (MTC), Richard III (NYSF) and Twelfth Night (PORTLAND STAGE).

Nelson has acted in over thirty-five films including Leaves of Grass, St John of Las Vegas, American Violet, The Incredible Hulk, The Astronaut Farmer, Fido, Hoot, Cherish, the Emmy-winning HBO movie Warm Springs, Meet the Fockers, Syriana, Holes, The Good Girl, Wonderland, Minority Report, The Thin Red Line, and the Coen Brothers’ O Brother Where Art Thou?. Nelson’s Leaves of Grass, which premiered recently at the Toronto Film Festival, stars Edward Norton, Susan Sarandon, and Richard Dreyfuss. In addition to playing a supporting role, he wrote, directed, and co-produced the dark comedy with Edward Norton and Class 5 Films.

In addition to Leaves, his film directorial credits include The Grey Zone, which he wrote and directed. The film stars Harvey Keitel, Steve Buscemi, Mira Sorvino, David Arquette, Allan Corduner and Natasha Lyonne. It premiered at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival and opened in October of the following year. Based on his award winning play, it is a dramatic story of the Sonderkommandos, special squads of Jews who processed corpses in the crematoria at Birkenau. The National Board of Review (2002) honored The Grey Zone with a “Special Recognition of Films that Reflect the Freedom of Expression.”

Nelson also directed O, a contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare’s Othello, which premiered at the 2001 Seattle Film Festival, where Nelson was awarded Best Director. The film stars Martin Sheen, Julia Stiles, Josh Hartnett and Mekhi Phifer. Nelson also wrote and directed the film Eye of God, starring Martha Plimpton, Hal Holbrook and Kevin Anderson, which appeared at the 1997 Sundance Film Festival, and was released theatrically in the United States later that year. The film received the top award at the 1997 Seattle Film Festival, as well as the Tokyo Bronze Prize at the Tokyo Film Festival. Nelson was born and raised in Tulsa , Oklahoma. He is a graduate of Brown University and the Julliard Theater Center . He resides in New York City with his wife and three sons.